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Hades: God of the Underworld
Hades, in Greek mythology, is the god of the dead. He was the son of the Titans
Cronus and Rhea and the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. When the three brothers
divided up the universe after they had deposed their father, Cronus, Hades was
awarded the underworld. There, with his queen, Persephone, whom he had abducted
from the world above, he ruled the kingdom of the dead. Although he was a grim and
pitiless god, unappeased by either prayer or sacrifice, he was not evil. In fact, he was
known as lord of riches, because both crops and precious metals were believed to
come from his kingdom below ground.
The underworld itself was often called Hades. It was divided into two regions: Erebus,
where the dead pass as soon as they die, and Tartarus, the deeper region, where the
Titans had been imprisoned. It was a dim and unhappy place, inhabited by vague
forms and shadows and guarded by Cerberus, the three-headed, dragon-tailed dog.
Sinister rivers separated the underworld from the world above, and the aged boatman
Charon ferried the souls of the dead across these waters.
Somewhere in the darkness of the underworld Hades' palace was located. It was
represented as a many-gated, dark and gloomy place, thronged with guests, and set in
the midst of shadowy fields and an apparition-haunted landscape. In later legends the
underworld is described as the place where the good are rewarded and the wicked
punished.